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Farm Finance funding drying up in New South Wales

The NSW Regional Assistance Authority expects a steep increase in the next round of applications for the Federal Government's Farm Finance Scheme.

ABC News: Chrissy Arthur

The New South Wales Regional Assistance Authority says it's allocated all of the money set aside for the first round of funding under the Federal Government's Farm Finance Scheme.

The RAA received 138 applications and it's already administered the $30 million provided to help eligible farmers with debt relief.

Acting general manager for the RAA, John Newcombe, says the applications came from farmers right across the state.

"The next round only has $10 million," he said.

"We certainly received enough applications to more than cover that already, so while we need people to reapply to make it fair for everybody, I don't think the money will last very long."

Meanwhile, not one farmer has applied for an emergency water infrastructure rebate, which are now available in drought-declared parts of New South Wales.

The rebate is designed to help farmers buy pumps, bores and tanks to stop their animals dying of thirst.

Mr Newcombe says the application process is lengthy and that could be holding up the process.

"So it's close to $750,000 that are approved or pending at the moment," he said.

"But we've certainly received large numbers of phone calls and we're anticipating the uptake will increase exponentially over the coming weeks.

"It's purely a factor of the application forms need to be completed. Farmers have to do a drought plan with the application, which takes a little bit of time, and also they need to work out where they're going to access equipment like piping and troughs and other heavy machinery that they might need."

The NSW Government's transport subsidies, which are designed to help farmers cover the cost of transporting fodder and stock, have been more popular.

"We've probably allocated about half of the money available, which was $4 million," Mr Newcombe said.

Meanwhile, recent rainfall hasn't given much hope to farmers in the state's worst drought-affected areas.

"They're still doing it tough; it certainly may be enough to get some grass growing before it cools down, but it's probably unlikely, unless there were storms, that there would've been enough rainfall for any significant runoff."